


A New Beginning

by cyanloversupreme



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Kind of a crossover between seasons?, M/M, Rory is ten's companion, idk man
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-22
Updated: 2018-10-01
Packaged: 2019-07-15 15:20:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16065887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cyanloversupreme/pseuds/cyanloversupreme
Summary: Nurse Rory Williams begins to hear a mysterious beeping noise, just as an equally mysterious man claims to be his supervisor at the Leadworth Hospital. Unfortunately, a set of disappearances has befallen the hospital and it's up to Rory to investigate.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to be part of a larger Rory/Ten series because I feel like Rory would have been a great companion for Ten--Rory needs to be pumped up and encouraged in a way that Ten was really good at doing. So yeah. *Shrug* What the hell, I decided to write fic for it. Everything's super out of character, but oh well.

“Rory, why do you keep looking up at the ceiling?” Dr. Richardson asked. They were supposed to be in the middle of discussing the course of treatment for a patient, but a faint beeping noise kept distracting Rory.

 

“Oh um. No reason. Have we taken a blood panel yet?” Rory said, turning back to his clipboard.

 

“We’ve already been over this—the blood panel’s results got lost in the post, and no small part due to your distracted behavior today,” She responded, investigating the patient’s chart.

 

“Of course, I see.” Rory said. Suddenly, a man walked in wearing a suit underneath his white Doctor’s coat instead of the usual scrubs—that wasn’t up to hospital regulation.

 

“Hello, I’m the Doctor, and I’m here to take over the treatment of this patient,” the mysterious man said.

 

“You don’t have the authorization to do that, much less the proper attire!” Dr. Richardson protested.

 

“Oh yes I do,” the Doctor said, flashing his credentials as well as a letter of permission from the Chief Physician of the hospital.

 

“I. I see. Well we still haven’t received the results of the blood panel.” She said, leaving the area.

 

“Good to know. See you round,” the Doctor said, with no real meaning behind his words. The beeping in the wall continued, and Rory shifted in his seat ever so slightly to the left in order to better determine the source of the noise.

 

“Who are you?” Rory asked. “I’ve never seen you before.”

 

“Oh, just call me the Doctor,” the Doctor said.

 

“Okay,” Rory said, producing an awkward silence. The beeping continued.

 

“What do you know about the disappearances going on in this hospital?” the Doctor asked casually.

 

“I’m not supposed to talk about that with anyone,” Rory said, guardedly.

 

“Well, I’m technically your superior,” the Doctor said.

 

“I suppose,” Rory said. “The disappearances really only started a few days ago, with a few patients leaving their beds for a walk just down the corridor and never returning. At first I thought the patients were just escaping, but after I looked into it, there was no reason for them to leave.”

 

“And then more started disappearing?” the Doctor asked.

 

“Yes. Not just the more difficult patients—patients in comas and some of the staff as well. They keep steadily disappearing and I can’t find out why,” Rory said.

 

“And no one will listen to you,” the Doctor said, his voice dropping down to a near whisper while he started pacing around the room.

 

“No. I’ve been told that it’s not an issue at this time,” Rory said, looking at his hands. The Doctor then took a strange silver item out of his pocket and turned it on, which made a strange noise while the Doctor swiped it across the wall.

 

“No, of course it’s not,” the Doctor said absentmindedly.

 

“What is that?” Rory said. “What are you holding?”

 

“Oh, a sonic screwdriver,” the Doctor said, reaching his arms across the wall until it looked like he was attempting to hug it. He used the screwdriver again on a particular point and then knocked on the wall, pressing his ear against it as if to see if the wall were hollow.

 

“I’m sorry, what?” Rory said.

 

“Oh nothing,” the Doctor deflected. “Anyway, has there been anything else strange in this building recently?”

 

“Not that I can think of,” Rory responded.

 

“No strange smells, fields of electricity, out of place people, weird feelings, persistent sounds?” the Doctor asked.

 

“Well, there was one thing,” Rory said. The Doctor nodded at him encouragingly. “There’s a beeping noise, and I can’t figure out the source of it.”

 

“Oh, a beeping noise! It all makes sense!” The Doctor said, enthusiastically.

 

“I suppose? It’s almost like the beeping isn’t coming from the building. It’s like it’s coming from something else,” Rory said. “I guess that sounds rather daft but…”

 

“No no no, that’s _brilliant_! The beeping noise wasn’t a part of the building, it’s a part of something else!” the Doctor said, shucking his white Doctor’s coat on the ground, revealing his full pinstriped suit.

 

“Oh. What kind of something else?” Rory said, standing up, confused.

 

“That’s what I’m here to find out. Allonsy!” the Doctor said, running out of the room.

 

 

~~~

 

Rory sprinted to keep up with the Doctor, running down the corridor while trying to get a word in edgewise.

 

“Where exactly are we going?” Rory asked, following the Doctor down the stairs.

 

“Does this building have any floor plans I can look at?” the Doctor asked.

 

“Aren’t you supposed to be in charge here?” Rory asked.

 

“Not exactly,” the Doctor said, turning into the basement, to be met with about ten silver capsules the size of a tall man. “Oh. I see,” the Doctor said, scanning them with his screwdriver. “That’s. Unfortunate.”

 

“What’s unfortunate?” Rory asked.

 

“Unfortunately, these are probably holding the people who disappeared,” the Doctor said. “And I don’t think they’re returning from their walks any time soon.”

 

“Okay, so how do we get them back then? There has to be a way,” Rory said, only to see the Doctor sprinting back up the stairs again. “People have been hurt Doctor, why can’t you just help them?”

 

“It’s more complicated than that,” the Doctor said, sadness beginning to cloud at the corner of his eyes.

 

“You’re a Doctor! Why can’t we give them medical attention!” Rory exclaimed.

 

“Think of the bigger picture! The beeping noise, the disappearances and deaths! Oh it all makes sense!” the Doctor said, sprinting back to the room he and Rory had started in. He used his screwdriver on the wall again, causing a panel to click out of the otherwise prosaic background. “Oh,” the Doctor said, slightly disappointed.

 

“Oh what?” Rory said, still confused.

 

“It’s just an alarm clock,” the Doctor said.

 

“Oh,” Rory said, equal parts confused and relieved.

 

“An alarm alarm clock meant to wake the Churgle!” the Doctor turned to Rory and exclaimed.

 

“The Churgle?” Rory said, now only confused without any of the relief.

 

“Oh Rory! It’s an alien species that sort of plants its eggs on the skin of planet so they can drill inward gaining nutrients as they grow! Oh, I’m good, I’m very good,” the Doctor said, following the wiring of the alarm clock to another ward of the hospital.

 

“Um. Who are you exactly?” Rory said, walking alongside him.

 

“The Doctor.”

 

“No no, I know you’re a doctor, practicing at this hospital, but what’s your name?”

 

“The Doctor,” the Doctor insisted.

 

“No, your real name,” Rory said, getting fed up.

 

“Call me… the Doctor,” the Doctor said once again, investigating the floor panels of the room.

 

“I see how it is then,” Rory said, looking away.

 

“Anyway Rory, best not to dwell on this, we have to get the Churgle out! In fact, get everyone out!” the Doctor exclaimed, popping back up from his position on the ground.

 

“Why would we need to evacuate the building?” Rory said, now confused and worried.

 

“Well, I plan on triggering a runaway exothermic reaction in that machine right there,” the Doctor said, pointing to the corner of the ward, “so we can just get rid of the Churgle before they’re truly hatched and not have to worry about the rest.”

 

“You do realize we’re in the coma ward of a hospital, there’s no way to move all of these people,” Rory said, frustrated at the Doctor’s disregard for the situation.

 

“Well, that’s certainly not great,” the Doctor said, looking around and realizing his surroundings.

 

“No, no it’s not,” Rory said, glancing worriedly at the machine the Doctor had just proposed exploding.

 

“We’ll have to find another solution then,” the Doctor said, spinning around.

 

“Can’t we just turn off the alarm clock?” Rory said, plodding back to the room where the clock was.

 

“Hm, I suppose that’s a start,” the Doctor said, more absorbed in his thoughts than his environment. “Oh! I know what’s happening!”

 

“What?” Rory said, exasperated by the strange actions of the Doctor.

 

“Take my screwdriver,” the Doctor said, tossing it at Rory from inside his blazer pocket. “Use it on exactly that setting on the wall with the alarm.”

 

“And where are you going?” Rory said.

 

“Down into the basement. Don’t follow me,” the Doctor said, sprinting out of the room.

 

~~~

 

Rory ran back toward the alarm clock, using the mysterious device on it. While it seemed to have the desired effect, the alarm clock unfortunately fell out of the wall once turned off, and onto Rory’s foot. Painfully. Rory managed to place the clock on the table, some of the wires still branching out from the wall. And he waited. After about twenty minutes of trying to piece together what the Doctor was doing in the basement, curiosity got the best of him, and he went back down to the basement, taking the alarm with him.

 

“Rory what did I tell you!” the Doctor said, his legs sprawled around while he tried to twist a red cable around a cobbled together contraption.

 

“I thought you may have wanted this back,” Rory said, tossing the screwdriver back to the Doctor.

 

“Lovely Rory! This was just what I needed,” the Doctor said, his face lighting up, now framed by a black pair of glasses. “I’m trying to rewire the signals that tell the Churgle to hatch to instead send them back to their mother ship and therefore their mother planet.”

 

“Wouldn’t it be easier to change the signal of the alarm rather than create an entirely new device?” Rory said.

 

“Problem is, we don’t have that device any more. I’d need it immediately, and it’s still up__,” the Doctor was interrupted by Rory setting the device next to the Doctor’s screwdriver. “Upstairs.”

 

“Not anymore,” Rory said, smiling.

 

“Oh, this is _brilliant_! Rory Williams! Thank you!” the Doctor said.

 

~~~

 

The Doctor managed to use his sonic on the alarm to reverse it, signaling the mother ship to regather the Churgle and take them elsewhere. Unfortunately, this meant that Rory had to gather a rather large bin of Churgle eggs and take them out to the patio of the hospital. However, once there, the Doctor used his new signaling device, which caused the mother ship to come back.

 

The ship also resembled a metal pod, but much larger than those in the hospital basement. A beam of blue light collected the eggs, and with that, the mothership left.

 

~~~

 

“Doctor, I think you have some explaining to do,” Rory said, still staring at the spot of the sky the spaceship had been in

 

“Well…..” the Doctor said, trying to evade Rory’s questions.

 

“Why were there aliens in the hospital. Why did the aliens start up exactly when you showed up?” Rory said. “This is Leadworth, not London. We don’t just have random things start to go wrong for no reason.”

 

“Rory,” the Doctor said, trying to deal with a now-cross Rory. “I. I may not actually be a Doctor.”

 

“Then why the hell did you have me call you “the Doctor” this whole time?” Rory said, upset.

 

“Well. That is what people call me. I’m just not exactly a Doctor in the medical sense,” the Doctor said, standing up.

 

“Where do you think you’re going?” Rory said.

 

“Let me. Let me show you something,” the Doctor said, grabbing Rory’s hand, steering him to the back of the hospital.

 

~~~

 

A wooden blue box stood solemnly next to the emergency exit to the hospital, with an unassuming aura.

 

“Oh, so you want to show me some artifact from the sixties as if that’s supposed to undo the damage that just happened to the patients of _my_ hospital?” Rory said, cross that the Doctor hadn’t acknowledged the deaths that had occurred as a result of the recent extraterrestrial visitors.

 

“Go inside,” the Doctor said. Rory slowly opened the door, to reveal an interior much larger than the exterior. Coral-like beams supported a central ceiling, while an aqua console slowly hummed.  

 

“Oh,” Rory said. “ _You’re_ an alien too. And you have a spaceship. That’s bigger on the inside.”

 

“Yes I do!” the Doctor said, sitting on a chair, resting his legs on the console.

 

“So where are you from?” Rory asked.

 

“Oh. I’m just from somewhere else,” the Doctor said. “We’ll leave it at that.”

 

“I see,” Rory said. “So what does your spaceship do exactly?”

 

“Well, I may have lied when I said it was a spaceship,” the Doctor said, while Rory raised his eyebrows. “It’s not just a spaceship. It’s also a time machine. Time and Relative Dimension in Space. TARDIS.”

 

“Oh!” Rory said, his eyes lighting up.

 

“All of time and space, it’s all yours,” the Doctor said, smugly adjusting the dials of his TARDIS. “Where would you like to go first?”

 

“Well, I’d like a change of clothes so if we could go to my house…” Rory said.

 

“All of time and space at your disposal and you want to go home?” the Doctor said, puzzled.

 

“Well, just to get a change of clothes,” Rory said. “Then we can go anywhere you’d like.”

 

“I see. Well, there should be a change of clothes in one of the rooms around here,” the Doctor said. “Get changed and then I’ll take us somewhere.”

 

“Oh brilliant!” Rory said, beginning to explore the spaceship.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha there's more now. Idk what the hell this is anymore. Not at all historically accurate.

“Rory, have I ever introduced you to Ancient Rome?” the Doctor said, stepping out of the TARDIS.

 

“No, no you haven’t,” Rory said, taking in his new surroundings.

 

“Well we’ve traveled to a deadly space spa, a strange hospital, and a planet made entirely of squash, yet I’ve made an egregious mistake,” The Doctor said, causing Rory’s heart to stop. “I’ve neglected to take you to the past!”

 

“Oh, that’s what you mean,” Rory said, sighing in relief. So the Doctor hadn’t found out about his midnight cookie snacks.

 

“Of course! Now… what time are we in?” the Doctor said, licking his finger and holding it up in the air. “Oh, that’s right, the Roman Empire, during the rule of Emperor Hadrian. Nice bloke, Hadrian. Accidentally got in a shouting match with him, best not to dwell on that.”

 

“I. I see,” Rory said. “So, what happens when they realize I’m dressed from not Ancient Rome.”

 

“Well, they won’t be able to tell unless you shout about it,” the Doctor said, putting his hands in his coat. “The TARDIS puts a minor perception field on your attire, makes it blend in.”

 

“Oh, I see,” Rory said, smiling softly at the Doctor’s habit to delve into technobabble. After living with him for some time, he’d come to appreciate the timelord’s quirks. He’d once even heard the Doctor singing in the shower, something that sounded suspiciously like Madonna.

 

“Anyway, the Romans have stranger beliefs to deal with than your clothes,” the Doctor continued. “For example, they believed that scratching a curse on a shard of pottery could do some real damage to their enemies.”

 

“Worked out real well against the Goths,” Rory said, sarcastically.

 

They paused their conversation as they turned around a crowded street corner, attempting not to lose each other in the crowd. The Doctor grabbed Rory’s hand, a delightful and confusing experience for both parties involved. Rory was beginning to notice the Doctor grabbing for his hand more and more often, but he wasn’t about to complain.

 

“Ah, and here we are,” the Doctor said excitedly. “The forum of Trajan! Welcome to the World’s oldest shopping mall, Rory!”

 

“Oh um. It’s fascinating I suppose,” Rory said, slightly overwhelmed. The forum _did_ seem similar to the market he’d been to on 90377 Sedna, but it was more interesting due to its historical nature.

 

“Fascinating indeed!” the Doctor said enthusiastically, buying a couple of chickpea cakes to munch on. Unfortunately, in his enthusiasm, he turned around and bumped into a patrician woman walking down the street. She glared at him initially, but her gaze softened as he profusely apologized. “Oh, I am so, so sorry! I’m the Doctor, and this is Rory, and you are?”

 

“I’m Cornelia, of the gens Cornelii Dolabellae,” Cornelia said, slightly aloof. “And your actions are quite forgiven. In fact, it would be lovely to get to know you better as my father is quite interested in patronizing a temple dedicated to Veiovis.”

 

To answer Rory’s confused look the Doctor said: “Oh yes Veiovis, the God of Medicine.”

 

“Indeed. These are troubling times, many are falling to inexplicable deaths, and I think my father wants answers. He would perhaps want to speak to a physician,” Cornelia responded.

 

“What do you mean, inexplicable deaths?” the Doctor asked, now intrigued.

 

“Many have fallen irreversibly ill and simply died. There is nothing our physicians can do and praying to the Gods seems to almost be in vain,” Cornelia said.

 

“Can you take me to someone who _is_ ill?” the Doctor asked.

 

“Tonight, my father is hosting a convivium,” Cornelia said. “Perhaps he can supply you with more answers then.”

 

~~~

 

Rory and the Doctor managed to stumble into the feast being held at Cornelia’s villa, however ungracefully. The Doctor managed to blend right in, knowing to recline on the triclinium and to begin polite conversation with another patrician named Vibia. Unfortunately, Rory remained a bit confused regarding Roman social customs.

 

“Doctor, why aren’t there any forks,” he furtively whispered in confusion.

 

“Oh, the Romans didn’t use forks frequently, they were too difficult to feasibly mass produce. They usually used spoons or ate with their hands,” the Doctor responded, turning back to the intense political discussion he had just been enraptured by. “So, Vibia, please tell me about your thoughts on Hadrian’s wall.”

 

“Oh of course! It is, after all, important to establish our boundaries,” she said, excited to converse with the Doctor. “And where do you come from?”

 

“Oh, we’re just from. Um. Gaul. That’s right. Gaul,” the Doctor said, tempted to fish out his psychic paper.

 

“I was unaware they dressed like you and your companion in Gaul,” Vibia replied. “I believed it barbaric, but pants?”

 

“Well, you know,” the Doctor said. “It’s Gaul.”

 

“You don’t seem to be of this planet,” Vibia said. The Doctor shivered—she shouldn’t know this information. He tucked away the strange conversation for later.

 

“Well, Gaul can seem like another planet,” Cornelia interjected, saving the Doctor the awkward moment of explanation.

 

“Well, of course,” Vibia replied, her eyes unconvinced.

 

Rory during all of this unfortunately committed the unknown faux pas of using his entire hand to pick up the food, dirtying his pinkie and ring finger. Cornelia noticed before the Doctor could and glared at him.

 

The Doctor picks up on this and begins to instruct Rory. “Rory, make sure you keep your pinkie and ring finger clean,” the Doctor said, whispering to Rory. He shaped Rory’s hand into the proper shape in order to more elegantly eat the food, and Rory stared back into his eyes.

 

“Why’s the food so spicy?” Rory whispered, taking another bite. He almost grabs the food incorrectly, but the Doctor corrects him by shaping his hand for him again.

 

“It’s a sign of social status amongst the patrician class,” the Doctor replied, staring intently at Vibia, trying to ascertain the source of her curiosity.

 

Rory could not handle the level of spice unaided, so he turned to his wine instead, while the conversation continued to flow around him.

 

“Ancient Roman wine,” the Doctor warned, “is much stronger than your usual fare.”

 

“Oh, is it?” Rory said, just before preceding to get unintentionally very drunk. Drunk enough that the guests of the party began diverting more and more of their attention away from the Doctor and toward Rory, to the point where Cornelia offered temporary lodging to both men.

 

The Doctor and Rory shuffled around an impluvium outside of the dining room, and toward their quarters. Pausing, Rory knelt down for a moment to look at the sky’s reflection into the shallow pool. His gaze softened as he looked into the eyes of the Doctor’s reflection, thinking about how far he was from home. While he hadn’t been gone for more than a week to the people in Leadworth, he’d been traveling in the TARDIS for over six months. His reflection looked the same, but he felt different. Perhaps a bit stronger, but more insignificant in the grand scheme of time. He supposed that’s what traveling with the Doctor did to someone. There was nothing like it

 

~~~

Rory awoke to the feeling of the Doctor lying beside him. At first, he thought the Doctor was asleep, but Rory couldn’t remember the last time the Doctor slept. In fact, Rory was almost positive the Doctor didn’t actually need to sleep.

 

Of course, Rory had other fish to fry. His pounding headache reminded him of the stronger Roman wine he’d had the night before, and he didn’t have the trusty pair of sunglasses he wore when he’d imbibed too much in the past.

 

The Doctor noticed Rory’s shifting, and turned to him. “Too much to drink last night?”

 

Rory weakly nodded in return.

 

“I warned you,” the Doctor said, pretending to scold Rory. “All that drinking, and we didn’t even get to discuss the mysterious illness with Cornelia’s father”

 

“Oh, I’m sure you’ll get over it,” Rory groused.

 

“Well,” the Doctor said, his mind was preoccupied by the strange guest from the night before. “Did you notice that woman?”

 

“What woman?” Rory said. “All I remember is blundering around.”

 

“Vibia. That patrician who mentioned our clothing,” the Doctor said.

 

“So much for the TARDIS’s perception filter then,” Rory shot back.

 

“Fair enough,” the Doctor replied. “But Vibia. How did she know that?”

 

“Well,” Rory muttered, rolling off the bed, “what if it’s related to the disappearances?”

 

“That’s brilliant Rory!” the Doctor said, a sudden flurry of activity, pacing the room. “She could be the one behind them! There’s got to be something deeper at work here, with these illnesses!”

 

~~~

Rory sprinted after the Doctor, as he searched for Cornelia. Fortunately, she was in the outdoor atrium of the , looking up at the sky.

 

“Cornelia!” the Doctor said. “Just the woman I was looking for! Brilliant!”

 

“Well, I’m glad you have found me then. What do you desire, sir?” she said.

 

“Your father wanted to build that temple dedicated to Veiovis, right?” the Doctor said. When Cornelia nodded, he continued. “Is there a specific place all of the ill have gone?”

 

“Well, I can’t confirm that for you, you’ll have to find that out on your own,” Cornelia said.

 

“Hm. How do you feel about traipsing around the town with me, Cornelia?” the Doctor said, formulating a plan.

 

“I wouldn’t be opposed to it, on the condition that I knew what was happening,” she said, intrigued.

 

“Well, we need to determine if all of the ill visited the same location. Finding a common ground could determine where the disease started,” the Doctor explained.

 

“Doctor, did the Romans have graveyards?” Rory asked, after contemplating something.

 

“Yeah, yeah they did,” the Doctor said, a bit confused.

 

“Well, maybe the disease originated there,” Rory proposed. After a beat of silence, he continued: “I mean, coming in contact with the dead _does_ facilitate the spread of disease, and it does seem the most plausible place in this___.”

 

“Rory that’s brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!” the Doctor said, his face radiant. “Cornelia, can you take me to the nearest graveyard?”

 

~~~

Unfortunately, due to the Roman custom of placing graveyards beyond the bounds of the city, the stroll to the graveyard took quite some time. However, Rory’s hangover improved considerably, and he and Cornelia had a rather interesting conversation about the emperor.

 

“…well, it’s not as if Hadrian doesn’t have his Antinous,” Cornelia stated, commenting on the horrible state of the emperor’s marriage.

 

“Oh, that’s right. Antinous. The emperor’s lover,” the Doctor said, to clue Rory into the direction the conversation was shifting. He was standing near a grave, sonic in hand, scanning for signs of the abnormal while Cornelia and Rory continued to chat.

 

“It’s not like he’s controlling the emperor,” Rory ventured, trying to keep Cornelia’s attention.

 

She shifted her gaze toward Rory, coyly touching her hair while continuing: “perhaps not, but it does seem rather in the style of the Greeks rather than the Romans to me.”

 

“Well, it’s still not. Harmful,” Rory said, beginning to blunder yet again.

 

“Well, you and your Doctor might have that,” Cornelia said, “so you are not the most objective progenitor of that argument.”

 

“Cornelia,” the Doctor said, interrupting the conversation. “What are these shards of pottery?”

 

“If you etch a curse onto one, the ghost within the grave will exact revenge for you,” she whispered.

 

“Is that what’s causing the disease, Doctor?” Rory asked.

 

“Don’t be so daft!” the Doctor responded. “Myths like these don’t actually exist.”

 

“Curses are the intention behind these pottery scraps,” Cornelia said.

 

“I see,” the Doctor said, pocketing one of the shards for later investigation. Leaning toward Rory he whispered: “she thinks we’re in a relationship. Maybe it’s just we’ve been traveling with each other for a bit long.”

 

Rory turned bright red, replying: “but. We’re not. And I like her Doctor. Please don’t screw this up.”

 

The Doctor leaned in as if he were about to reply when he saw something shift in the corner of his eye. “What’s that, over there?” he asked.

 

The trio began to trek closer, to find Vibia stalking around in a bit of a mood.

 

“Hello, Vibia,” the Doctor said sunnily. Vibia smiled back, but glared at Rory when the Doctor’s back was turned. The Doctor whispered to Rory again: “I don’t think she’s very happy with your behavior at the party last night.”

 

“Well, what was I supposed to do, Doctor? It wasn’t like I had “Rick Steve’s guide to Ancient Rome” on me!” Rory whispered back, trudging back out of the graveyard.

 

~~~

Back at the villa, Rory and Cornelia began to throw theories around while the Doctor stared at the wall thinking. Suddenly, Rory fainted.

 

The Doctor sprinted over, scanning Rory with his screwdriver, worried. The scan confirmed what the Doctor had feared: Rory had contracted whatever mysterious disease was killing everyone else. “How long does he have, Cornelia,” the Doctor said, softly.

 

“I. I don’t know,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

 

“How. Long!” the Doctor shouted, panicking. It was no longer a question, but a prayer. He paced around the room, disheartened. He didn’t understand what the cause of his predicament was, but he couldn’t let Rory die. His Rory, the one that would blush if he’d sneezed too loudly. The Rory that was never sure of himself but was right about more things than anyone could expect. The Rory that he sometimes caught eating a midnight snack of chocolate chip cookies after a particularly rough excursion. Rory, his maddening companion that he couldn’t let out of his sight not so much for Rory’s safety, but for the place he held in the Doctor’s heart. No, Rory couldn’t die. At least not today.

 

The Doctor shoved his hands into his pockets and continued to pace. Consequently, his hand hit the shard of pottery from the graveyard. The one he’d collected after telling Rory it had nothing to do with the issue at hand. He grabbed the piece, and scanned it, realizing that something darker was indeed at work.

 

“Cornelia, can you take me to Vibia’s villa,” the Doctor said, on the verge of tears.

 

“Yes, of course I can,” Cornelia said. She left the room for the front of her house, the Doctor about to follow.

 

Before he left, the Doctor knelt down next to Rory, sighing. He stared up at the sky, and back down to the man he’d known for what had felt like much longer than six months. Slowly, he lowered his lips on to Rory’s, knowing full well that this was most likely his last opportunity to kiss the companion he knew he’d miss upon death.

 

The Doctor picked Rory up from the atrium’s floor and put Rory back into the bed they’d rested in the night before. With tears streaking down his face, he gave Rory one last glance before sprinting back to meet up with Cornelia.

 

~~~

After ten minutes which felt more like ten centuries, the Doctor and Cornelia arrived at Vibia’s villa. Upon being let in, the Doctor became more self-conscious of his pinstripe suit, as the perception filter apparently did not work on Vibia.

 

Speaking of which, Vibia stepped into the room, a scowl carved onto her face. “The man from the stars,” Vibia said. “We meet again.”

 

“Vibia,” the Doctor said. “Can you take us to the graveyard we saw you in yesterday?”

 

Confused, Vibia exited the house with him and Cornelia, and began to walk that way. “Why are we doing this?”

 

“Oh, you know. Just wanted to get a refreshing walk in,” the Doctor said. After some awkward conversation, they finally reached the graveyard in question. “Now, Vibia. Would you mind looking at this?”

 

“Why are you having me do such absurd things?” she said. “Cornelia, what are you having this madman do!”

 

“Vibia, please,” the Doctor said. “Does the language etched on there ring a bell.”

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Vibia responded, trying to appeal to Cornelia.

 

“Hm, Cornelia, why don’t you try to read this,” the Doctor said, handing the piece over to Cornelia. Cornelia attempted to, but looked back at the Doctor in confusiong.

 

“That is not scribed in any language I know,” she said.

 

“Oh it’s not, but I think Vibia would be well acquainted with it,” the Doctor said. “It’s the language of the Lamentarius, an alien creature that feeds of ill will.”

 

Vibia blanched but was unable to conceal what the Doctor had just revealed.

 

“Why did you curse my friend?” the Doctor asked, a cool anger embedded in his voice.

 

“Your friend, or your lover?” Vibia taunted.

 

“That’s not my question,” the Doctor said. “Why did you curse him!”

 

“I knew one of you would unravel what I was doing!” Vibia said. “I knew one of you would, you strangely dressed barbarians. So I cursed him. It didn’t help his case that he’d spilt wine on me, but that’s beside the point. I knew one of you would figure out what was happening, and I tried to curse you at first, but it didn’t work. So I had to go with your companion Rory instead.”

 

“Undo it,” the Doctor said, fury underlying his command.

 

“Or what?” Vibia replied. “I happen to hold all of the cards here.”

 

“Undo it or I won’t be here to help you when the Lamentarius come for you,” the Doctor said. “Because as far as I’m concerned, there’s a spaceship underneath this graveyard and if you don’t do their bidding, you’ll be killed.”

 

“Fine,” Vibia said, recanting her curse in the pottery etching. She placed it on the grave in a huff.

 

“Now, were’s the ship,” the Doctor said, scanning the air with his screwdriver. He followed the signal into the tunnel of a catacomb, finally finding a silver capsule blocking the dark corridor from continuing.

 

Cornelia gasped: “What is that?”

 

“Ah, so it’s not the full ship, just an escape capsule,” the Doctor said, prying the doors of the capsule open. “How exactly did you find this?”

 

“I was in my atrium one night a few months ago when I saw a bright light while I was attending to the grave of my grandfather,” Vibia said. “I began to investigate when I found this small capsule—a shade-like creature which needed my help to survive. It said I could help it by drawing a series of shapes onto a piece of pottery.”

 

“Only they weren’t shapes, they were characters in the Lamentarius’s alphabet,” the Doctor said cooly, while Vibia and Cornelia both began to sob.

 

“How could you betray me like this?” Cornelia said.

 

“Well, I had no choice. The creature demanded it, so I did. I placed the pottery onto the graves and suddenly illness began to spread,” Vibia said. With that response, Cornelia sprinted out of the catacomb for home.

 

“And it didn’t occur to you that these things were connected!?” the Doctor said.

 

“I thought they might be, but it wasn’t until I cursed your friend that I realized my power,” Vibia said.

 

“Well, I hope you’ve learned your lesson about power, because this mess is going to be very messy to clean up,” the Doctor said, reaching for the wiring of the metal pod.

 

“Not over my dead body,” Vibia said, pulling out another shard.

 

“Oh try that, but it’s not going to work,” the Doctor said. “You don’t know my real name, good luck cursing me.”

 

“Well perhaps I don’t need that,” Vibia said, swiftly pushing the Doctor with his chest on the pod, her dagger digging into the back of his neck.

 

Suddenly, out of seemingly nowhere, someone grabbed Vibia from behind and the pressure of the blade ceased on the Doctor’s neck. Cornelia. She pushed Vibia down into the ground, holding her down while waiting for further instructions from the Doctor. Even better, Rory stood there, handing the Doctor a ceramic urn.

 

“Oh, this is brilliant Rory and Cornelia!” the Doctor exclaimed. “We summon the lamentarius and put it into the urn, making it easier to launch back to its home planet! Brilliant idea Rory!”

 

“Oh, I was just giving this to you so you had a weapon,” Rory muttered. They looked into each other’s eyes and then awkwardly looked away, clearly not mentioning what had transpired before.

 

“Just the same! All we need to do is summon the Lamentarius and then trap it in the jar. Then we’ll put the homing instructions with the jar, which will then launch back to…”

 

~~~

“Doctor, are we going to talk about what happened?” Rory asked, staring back into the atrium’s pool at Cornelia’s villa.

 

“I. I thought you were dying,” the Doctor said. His pinstripe suit almost seemed pattern-less in the dark night’s air.

 

“So you kissed me,” Rory said. “There. I said it. You kissed me. On the lips. I felt it,” Rory said.

 

The Doctor’s face fell, so Rory continued. “I mean. It was nice. The kiss. I didn’t know you felt that way.”

 

“I didn’t know I felt that way either, until you almost died,” the Doctor said, beginning to tear up. “I thought about how I couldn’t bear to lose you. How much I’d loved you,” he continued, pulling Rory toward him. “When you leave the room, I can still feel you there because you manage to change the atmosphere so much. To travel without you? It would be devastating.”

 

“I’m glad we’re on the same page then,” Rory said, while the Doctor carded his hair. “But. I don’t think Cornelia understands that you’re not going to help her father with temple construction,” he said, gesturing to the neglected scroll with a blueprint of the proposed temple, lying next to the Doctor, forgotten in the conversation.

 

“Well, we’ll have to do something about that, won’t we?” the Doctor said, grinning. He was ecstatic that he had his Rory, safe in his arms, and that they were now both on the same page. “But I think that I want to stay sitting here with you for a while.”


End file.
